Highpower verticalcavity surfaceemitting AlGaAs/GaAs diode lasers L. M. Zinkiewicz, T. J. Roth, L. J. Mawst, D. Tran, and D. Botez Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 54, 1959 (1989); doi: 10.1063/1.101184 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.101184 View Table of Contents: http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/APPLAB/v54/i20 Published by the AIP Publishing LLC.
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HighDpower verticalMcavity surface..emitting AIGaAsl GaAs diode lasers L. M. Zinkiewicz, To J. Roth, L. J. Mawst, D. Tran, and D. Botez TR W Space & Technology Group, One Space Park, M5/1065, Redondo Beach California 90278
(Received 30 January 1989; accepted for publication 28 February 1989) Vertical-cavity surface emitters with rear mirrors made of conductive semiconductor stack reflectors (R r = 98%) were developed. Current confinement is obtained via an etch and regrowth technique with no need for dielectrics. Peak powers of 120 m W were achieved at room temperature. The external differential quantum efficiency is 15%. Vertical-cavity surface-emitting (VeSE) diode lasers are a class of devices with a wide range of potential uses from parallel optical processing and integrated circuit interconnects to two-dimensional externally locked diode laser arrays. In VCSE devices the lasing cavity is perpendicular to the surface of the laser chip, allowing for relatively high packing density compared to standard edge-emitting diode lasers, where the lasing cavity is parallel to the surface of the chip. Aside from high packing density, yeSEs have another advantage over edge emitters: the circular-like nature of their beams makes them ideally suited for use in beam combining techniques for high-power applications. In this letter we present a novel VCSE device which incorporates a conductive semiconductor stack reflector (SSR) behind the active region (i.e., rear mirror), and a complementary selfaligned (CSA) type current confinement scheme which does not require a dielectric. These features and the ability to mount the device junction side down have allowed us to attain power levels greater than 100 mW pulsed, which repre~ sents an order of magnitude improvement over the best results previously reported for similar diameter YeSEs. VCSE-type lasers have been developed for the last ten years. I g For electrically pumped devices the rear reflector has generally been the core of a ring-shaped electrode,2.6.x as to allow for both current injection and light reflection. As a consequence, such rear reflectors have relatively low reflectivity values and may introduce significant scattering loss. Previous workers have tried to compensate for this shortcoming by placing high-reflectivity ( = 95%) front reflectors. 9 Relatively low threshold currents were then achieved,
but the external differential quantum efficiency rId' is severely affected. This may explain why to date the highest report-
